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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Art Class - Grid Line Drawing

This year in art class we are working on our drawing technique. We are also going to learn shading, blending, motion, and shadows. I am trying to blend artists in with the techniques we will be working on. There will be some fun projects thrown in along the way!!

This week, we worked on grid drawing. Or the use of grids to break down more complicated drawing. I chose to also introduce the kiddos to Pop Art, particularly the works of Andy Warhol.

In prep for this lesson, I printed two works of Andy Warhol's art pieces for the different age groups. We had kids in the class from pre-k through ages 13/14. So a wide age group and skill level. I printed in both color and black/white (to save on printer ink). A black/white copy was printed for each student. On those copies, using a ruler I drew grids. The colored prints I laid a couple among the student levels so they could see that Pop Art doesn't have the typical color. (As you can see my ink was already getting low.)

At class, using a laptop (we meet in a local coffee shop), we looked up and discussed what Pop Art was and then looked at examples of Andy Warhol's artwork. We discussed how the colors Pop out at you. How everyday objects that are laying around the house can really become works of art. And you are only limited in colors by your own imagination.

So then it was down to business. I talked with the kids about what the numbers on their drawing pencils meant and they chose pencils. Next we drew grid lines on pages in their sketchbooks, and it was time to get down to drawing.

The benefit of grid line drawing is to allow your eyes to focus on just one section at a time in order to get the full detail drawn. (I really tried to pick an easy project for them to draw though...don't want frustration.) ALWAYS draw your grid lines though in a lighter pencil. So lower number pencils are best for this and harder leads. You don't want your lines smearing as you move your arm across them.

Some of the kids found it helpful to number and letter their grids to keep track of where they were.

The Mickey was a little tough for the younger kids. But they had fun trying to draw Mickey Mouse. I missed pics of their artwork.

Here is Joey and Lydia's finished work:

Lydia didn't didn't hold back on color.

Joey got a little frustrated. His attention span allows him for short periods (and it was a bad day). But the nice thing about grid drawing, he can easily find where to pic back up.

This project helps with control and looking at detail. It works with shorter attention spans.